As leading shares drift low, mining shares are having a mixed day so far.

But Anglo American has jumped 52p to £20.65 as its results, although showing a fall, met analysts expectations. Outgoing chief executive Cynthia Carroll, who hands over at the end of next month to Mark Cutifani, unveiled a 44% drop in operating profit to $6.2bn and a 50% fall in underlying earnings. After impairment charges for its Minas Rio iron ore mine in Brazil and its troubled platinum business, the loss totalled $1.5bn.

But the company pleased investors with a 15% increase in the dividend. Carroll defended the company's strategy, including Minas Rio which has been hit by delays and permit problems. She told Reuters:

We did not go after a huge acquisition, or an enormous company. We did not have attempted acquisitions and then failed acquisitions, like some of our competitors. What we did do, and this was the mandate I was given when I arrived, was to pursue iron ore. Minas Rio is a resource that has increased fourfold since we have gone into it and it is going to be bigger. The quality of this resource is phenomenal.

Analysts at Numis said:

[Anglo] has made some big inroads since a challenging year and will have to wait and see what new chief executive Cutifani can do. We expect the business to remain challenged by depressed conditions in some of its key commodity divisions and the South African mining industry to remain a tough working environment, meaning many will favour the other lower risk, higher margin major miners.

Christopher LaFemina at Jefferies was more positive, saying the worst may now be over:

Anglo has been our least preferred of the major diversified miners. We have been concerned about ongoing capital expenditure inflation and the risk of further delays at the company's enormous Minas Rio iron ore project, operating challenges at Anglo Platinum, structural cost inflation in South Africa, and a variety of other issues, including management's track record of questionable investment decisions.

But it is possible now that the worst is over for Anglo. While Minas Rio still has risks, we believe the upside potential to the revised $8.8bn capex budget is minimal. We expect some restructuring to at least modestly improve the outlook for Anglo Platinum, and the generally weakening trend for the rand could be a tailwind for Anglo. Finally, incoming chief executive Mark Cutifani is likely to pick some low-hanging fruit opportunities to create value at Anglo, and there is a possibility that the merged Glenstrata attempts to acquire the company at some point. While we maintain our hold rating on Anglo shares, we believe the risk to our target price is to the upside.

Johnson Matthey has dropped 43p to £22.56 as the refiner said it would lose commission income of around £35m after Anglo American Platinum decided not to renew a development deal.

Elsewhere in the mining sector, Xstrata has added 2.5p to 1187.5p, but Fresnillo has fallen 40p to £16.15 and Randgold Resources 165p to £56.35 after Citigroup issued sell recommendations on both shares due to declining gold and silver prices.

Overall the FTSE 100 has fallen 14.30 points to 6313.02 ahead of the two year G20 meeting. Angus Campbell at Capital Spreads said:

This morning the FTSE is just in the red as investors continue to contemplate the recent strength in equities so far this year. Many are sitting on their hands ahead of the G20 summit that gets underway today. Clients remain overall bearish of the FTSE and in particular the US indices as they remain around their highs.

Lower down the market Greencore has lost 14.25p to 88p after the food company confirmed it supplied Asda's beef bolognese sauce which contained traces of horse meat. It said the meat came from ABP Food Group's plant in County Tipperary.